I find I have lost count of the number of columns I have done for 1up on Massively Multiplayer games. Just the same, I did one this week … and handed it in a day late because I got retardedly sick on Thursday morning. I travel to coasts and across time zones and have no problems, but apparently I’m unable to finish things in a timely fashion in my own home. :P

The Big Story

Another AGDC has come and gone, and this year I finally made it down there for the festivities. What is AGDC? Until last year, it was an independently-run game conference held annually in Austin, TX. The event focused, much more than any other conference, on the creation of online games and virtual worlds. Since last year, the conference was purchased by the CMP group, the same folks that run GDC every year in the spring. They re-branded the event into “GDC Austin” and (or so it seemed to me) worked to widen the appeal of the event just a bit. The result this year was a conference struggling to be at peace with itself. Some very visible scheduling mistakes made it hard for some people to enjoy the experience; some panels were overflowing, while others (especially some of the keynotes) were sorely under-attended. It felt for the most part like first year jitters, and here’s hoping they’ll have most of the kinks worked out by next year. Below are descriptions of and links to coverage of some of the biggest events at the conference this year.

I feel like such a dip. First I go on about Allen Varney’s writing, and now I feel the need to pimp out the work of Jim Rossignol, Keiron Gillen, and Alec Meer over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Kerion’s most recent post (very germaine to the site here, don’t you know) is all about the Making of A Tale in the Desert.

Abstractly these are simple challenges, but its implications could lead to all manner of human problems. To see how players reacted to this, consider the Test of the bureaucracy. “A few people are assigned the precious opportunity to start a bureaucracy,” explains [Teppy], “You do well in this test by growing it as big as you can. It’s an organisational puzzle. Anyone in the bureaucracy can take it over, and so gain its resources. It’s easy for them to do it. In fact, people who are lower ranked in the bureaucracy, so are giving lots of points for you, but getting few for themselves… and there’s the most of them, they have the most to gain by taking over, ruining your hard work and taking it for themselves. It’s a test to see how you manage a large organisation.”

Other great posts from the site include:

• Commentary on the first EVE Econ report.
• The true story of yet another bughunt.
• An interview with Henry Jenkins.
• The making of Dungeon Siege.
• A pimp for Drift City, an F2p driving MMOG.
• The making of Sacrifice. (I really love this game.)

If you’re into PC gaming (and if you’re not, why are you reading this site), I highly recommend their work. Poets all.

One of the most surprising experiences I had at PAX was my funfun happy time with Fury. I mentioned it in the PAX Massive, but it’d be understandable if you didn’t fully understand what it’s about. Here’s an attempt at a brief description of the game:

Fury is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game that attempts to bridge the gap between the RPG and FPS genres, leaning more towards the FPS side of the equation. Players take on a character-less avatar who participates in purely PvP confrontations. There are several different spheres of powers, each tied to a particular color. Each color roughly corresponds to an RPG trope (Red = Fire, Green = Nature). Within these colors, you can specialize into any of the standard MMOG roles (Blaster, Melee, Healer). Characters are not tied to a particular color or role at any point in the game; simply by loading a saved template of combined abilities and equipment, an entirely new role can be adopted with the same character. It will be purchasable in stores, but once you bring the box home it will be free to play. A fee service is available for additional conveniences and access to more ‘ranking’ elements.

There it is, in as tight a nutshell as I can manage. So, what’s it like to play?

Read more

Tuesday I did a super-quickie chat discussion with a bunch of XFire users and Russ Pitts from The Escapist about what it’s like to do games writing for a living. I think I managed not to seem like a total ass, which … ftw.

Hartsman.com

Though he hasn’t talked about how awesome the concept of having appearance slots vs. equipments slots is, or where that idea came from yet, he has managed to break a finger. Way to go, sir.

Friday the latest Massive Update went up on the 1up site. For me, it was a personal victory. I managed to make it through every single week of travel without slacking on a single project. The week that Massive was missing was not my fault; the giant file o’ doom was in on time on Wednesday night of that week.  So! Go me.

Last week I touched on the news out of PAX, but it very much deserves a re-visiting. Though there were several games there, the ones that really stood out as having new content to offer (aside from the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, obviously) were massively multiplayer games. Of those titles at the show, the buzz was primarily around Pirates of the Burning Sea, Fury, and (of course) Warhammer Online. The Warhammer folks couldn’t talk about the new hotness (the Elves), because that was the task dedicated to the folks in Leipzig. Just the same, they had plenty interesting to talk about, when they could be torn away from their absolutely packed booth. Carolyn Koh of MMORPG had a chat with the folks there about the game in general, and came away impressed by her hands-on RvR experience. Cameron over at TenTonHammer has up a lengthy interview with Carrie Gouskos, the mind behind the legendary Tome of Knowledge. Probably one of the most interesting features of Warhammer, it’s great to get a detailed account of what exactly this feature will mean for players

I literally just walked away from Brent and Craig, having walked with them to the ‘front door’ of the MSP airport. I have a long layover here in Minneapolis before my flight to the Mad-town, and I am determined to make the most of it.

Before I do actual work, though, I want to make sure and put down some thoughts about GDC Austin for ye olde MMOG Nation. With my posting schedule of late, you’d think that I had forgotten about the site. I can assure you that’s not the case. Writing has been something of a problem of late, my time on the road apparently sucking my will to string words together into sentences.

Today I’m heading home for the rest of the year, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I am really looking forward to settling into some enthusiastic word-stringing over the next week. Plans for here include a large writeup on Tabula Rasa (though I do appreciate the nice things people have been saying about my last one), Pirates of the Burning Sea, EQ2, WoW, Fury, Eye of Judgement, and a ’scathing editorial’ continuation of an interchange I had with Mark Jacobs during a GDC session. (Expect less scathing and more good-natured ribbing.)

For now, though, here’s my highlights from GDC Austin 2007:

• Meeting with the SWG team at the SOE Austin studios; specifically, chatting with Deadmeat, Blixtev, Chris Cao, and John Blakely about blogging and game communities was a trip. I will also say, while I didn’t get to see DCUO, I did see a lot of concept art on the walls. In a word: delicious.
• Dinner with Brent, Eric, and Scott the first night in town. I was unsure of how I would handle yet another sojourn away from home, and getting a warm welcome to town really helped keep me ‘grounded’.
• The CM’s panel was a trip; seeing reps from SOE, Blizzard, Flying Lab, NCSoft … and Sanya … do their thing in front of a packed room of people was inspiring.
• Chatting with Brian, Damion, and Sara in an almost-empty ‘party’; getting to hear Damion and Sulka talk a little smack.
• Had a long chat with Brent on Wednesday about this, that, and the other. Talking with humans is fun, it turns out.
• Thursday started kind of sad panda and turned out awesome. I like that in and of itself.
• Despite the undersized crowd (or perhaps because of it), I thought the ‘Playing Nice’ panel went really really well.
• What’s better than having BioWare demo their writing tools, and talk a bit about the process of doing the dialogue construction for their games? Seeing in-game footage with the female version of Commander Shephard for the first time.
• Dinner with Brent, Cuppy, and Scott as a prelude to an evening of entertainment on SOE’s tab.
• Getting to chat with Sharky, Emily, and Darren. Those Ziff folks are darned friendly.
• A great interview with EVE’s new financials guy.
• The verbal fisticuffs during the ‘Future MMOG Opportunities’ panel between Mark Jacobs and Raph.
• Being able to fly with people, having a great conversation all the way from Austin to Minneapolis. (I’ve flown not-by-myself precisely four times in my life.)

I enjoyed myself more in the last few weeks than I have at almost any other time this year. In truth, I’ve kind of not really enjoyed 2007. Most of it has been ‘okay’, but there’s also been a lot of crap that I just really could have done without. I’ve certainly had stress and frustrations in the last month, but between the Arena.net trip, Gen Con, PAX, and now GDC Austin … as happy as I am to be home, I don’t regret a single bit of it.

Now I need to turn around and return this enthusiasm to my job, my writing and (of course) my blog. Thanks for reading.